Lankans in the Night Sky

Nalaka GUNAWARDENE and Vindana ARIYAWANSA

While a significant number of Lankans have left their mark in different areas of human endeavour – ranging from arts and science to sports and diplomacy – very few have literally left their name in the night sky. For one thing, only a handful of Lankans take to astronomy at a professional or serious amateur level. For another, the naming of celestial bodies is strictly controlled by the global alliance of astronomers called the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Governments or corporate entities cannot exert influence on this process.

According to the IAU, asteroids and comets of our solar system are the only celestial objects that can be named for an individual which will be officially recognized by them. (Those commercial website that offer to name a star in your name for a small fee are not official, and their naming carries no scientific acceptance.) IAU have strict guidelines for naming night sky objects after a person or event or location on Earth, and each nomination has to be reviewed and accepted by the astronomical community.

We lead today with questions on some Lankans who have been so recognised.

1. Christmas day 2008 marked the 100th death anniversary of a Ceylonese-English pioneer amateur astronomer. Operating from his observatory in Trincomalee, and using a basic telescope, he drew detailed maps of Mars and Jupiter at the beginning of the 20th Century which won him wide acclaim as one of the finest planetary observers of his time.

In 1973, The International Astronomical Union named one of the largest craters on planet Mars in his honour. Who was he?

2. An asteroid discovered on August 13, 1999 by the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search at the Anderson Mesa Station in US, and initially designated as 1999 PK6, was recently officially named 22802 Sigiriya. This is in recognition of the fifth century rock fortress in Sri Lanka famous for its frescoes and engineering feats, and now a UNESCO World Heritage site sometimes called the ‘eighth wonder of the world’. The name was suggested by a leading Sri Lankan born astronomer who has asteroid No 12871 named after him. Who is he?

3. Asteroid 16107, discovered in 1999, is now named as Chanmugam in honour of a Sri Lankan born, Cambridge educated astrophysicist who made broad contributions to our understanding of the magnetic and radiative properties of neutron stars and white dwarfs. He was a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Louisiana State University in US for 25 years, and died in 1996. What is his full name?

4. Often called ‘the Dutch Mona Lisa’, this painting drawn in 1665 by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer is on display at the Mauritshuis in the Hague. The story behind this painting was made into a 2003 movie by Peter Webber staring Scarlett Johannson and Colin Firth. What is the name of the painting and the movie?

5. Apple, Inc. and the Samsung Corporation are engaged in a bitter disputer over their respective tablet devices, respectively the iPad and Galaxy range of smart phones. In its defence, Samsung’s lawyers have cited, among other things, a sequence from a classic science fiction movie released in 1968, where a similar device is seen. Samsung argues that this proves ‘prior art’ of a design that Apple claims to have patented. What is this movie?

6. British singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse was found dead on July 23, 2011, at her home in London. Police said that the cause of her death is ‘as yet unexplained’ and that the death was ‘non-suspicious’. She thus joined a long line of entertainment industry stars who have died at the same young age: Brian Jones (died in 1969); Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin (both died in 1970); Jim Morrison (1971); and Kurt Cobain (1994). At which age did all these performing artistes die?

7. The Berlin Wall was erected by former East Germany beginning on the August 13, 1961 to completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. For 28 years, it prevented people on the eastern side from fleeing to the West.

The Wall symbolized the Iron Curtain between the communist East Germany and capitalist West Germany during the Cold War. It was finally broken down on November 9, 1989 as a result of weeks of people’s agitations.

Name the East German leader who ordered the Berlin Wall’s construction in 1961.

8. Three Indian states tried to ban a new Hindi film titled Aarakshan (Reservation) starring Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone. Released on August 12, 2011, the film is a socio-political drama based on the policy of caste-based reservations in government jobs and educational institutions. Name the director of this film, who successfully petitioned the Indian Supreme Court to compel the state governments to suspend their ban of his film on perceived threats to communal harmony.

9. The Girl Guide and Boy Scout Movements were founded by Lord Robert Baden-Powell in the early part of the 20th Century. The concept and practice of Guiding was introduced to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1917 by Jenny Greene, (nee) Jenny Calverley, and the first Guide Company was started at a leading girls’ school. Which school had the honour of starting this movement, which now has spread throughout the island with over 35,000 members?

10. Prasanna Vithanage is one of Sri Lanka’s leading film-maker today who has won awards and critical acclaim at home and overseas. What was the first feature film he made in 1992, which won nine OCIC (Sri Lanka) Awards including Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress?

11. Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly was an anti-slavery novel by American woman author that some say laid the groundwork for the American civil war. Centred on an African-American slave named Uncle Tom, who is sold and resold, and Eliza, who flees to save her child, it was meant to ‘awaken sympathy’ for those suffering under a ‘cruel and unjust’ system.

The book was first serialized in an abolitionist weekly and later published in book form – the latter sold 300,000 copies. It thus became the best selling novel in the entire 19th Century and the second best-selling book of that century, coming next to the Bible. When President Abraham Lincoln met the authoress at the start of the US Civil War, he is said to have declared: “So this is the little lady who started this great war!” Who was the author?

12. He is a prominent Indian novelist and journalist who has been writing professionally for over 60 years, and remains active at the age of 96 with a steady output in English, his first language. He has written novels, short stories, essays and edited two major Indian newspapers, The National Herald and the Hindustan Times, and the magazine The Illustrated Weekly of India. He writes a widely read weekly column, “With Malice towards One and All”, which is published in several Indian newspapers, and is well known for his trenchant secularism, humour, wit and love of poetry. Who is he?

13. Who was the only football player to have captained and then coached World Cup national winning teams? He captained Germany to World Cup win in 1974 and later coached the German team to another World Cup win in 1990. He is nicknamed Der Kaiser (‘The Emperor’) because of his elegant style, his leadership and his dominance on the football pitch. He is generally regarded as the greatest German footballer of all time, and is one of the most decorated footballers in the history of the game. He is often credited as having invented the role of the modern sweeper or libero.

14. Which cricketer has the best bowling figures (as at August 2011) in an inning of a T20 International cricket match? He was also the fastest to reach 50 wickets in One Day International cricket history. A former gunnery soldier for his country’s army, this bowler is famous for his use of a mystery ‘Carrom Ball’.

15. The Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet Michael Ondaatje has written his sixth novel, just published internationally in mid 2011.

It tells the story of a 11-year-old boy, Michael, on a voyage from the former Crown Colony of Ceylon to England in the 1950s. What is the novel’s title?

Answers will be published next week

Last week’s answers

1. Pierre Boulle
2. Bangkok and Rangoon
3. Kitulgala
4. Tim Cook
5. Daniel Ellsberg
6. Mark Twain
7. Gamini Goonasena
8. It is named after Michael Ondaatje’s mother, Doris Gratiaen
9. Sakuntala Sachithanandan
10. Tilly Smith
11. Professor Stephen R Carpenter
12. The Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus)
13. Sir Richard van de Riet Woolley (1906-1986)
14. David Lean, who was filming ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’
15. The ‘Haka’